Xi's speech at World AI Conference inspiring, exciting: Nobel laureate

Chinese President Xi Jinping's speech at the opening ceremony of the 2026 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance was "inspiring and exciting", said Omar Yaghi, the 2025 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.

Yaghi, who attended the opening ceremony in Shanghai, shared his impressions in an interview with China Media Group (CMG), expressing strong support for Xi's emphasis on inclusiveness and openness in AI development.

In his address, Xi highlighted the principle of openness and encouraged inclusiveness. He called on all parties to seize AI development opportunities by encouraging open source, openness, collaboration and sharing, as well as joint efforts to establish a just and equitable system for global AI governance.

"Inspiring and exciting, and I was listening quite intently to what he has to say, and I was quite impressed with the detail of the speech and the plan. And I think the most inspiring thing for me is that he looks at AI and its development as a world [activity] to benefit the world, as a world activity, and that no one nation should have exclusive right over AI. And I like the openness, the open source. I think that's very helpful to a lot of scientists such as myself. And I hope more and more countries will follow suit. So I think it was a great speech, it was inspiring, and it's really good to be here and hear it firsthand," said Yaghi.

The 2026 World AI Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance opened in Shanghai on Friday under the theme of "AI Partnership for a Brighter Future", and will run through Monday.

The U.S. dollar was almost flat in late trading on Friday.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, edged up to 100.765 at 3 p.m. (1900 GMT).

In late New York trading, the euro dropped to 1.1436 dollars from 1.1438 dollars in the previous session, and the British pound lost to 1.3454 dollars from 1.3470 dollars in the previous session.

The U.S. dollar bought 162.45 Japanese yen, higher than 162.39 Japanese yen in the previous session. The U.S. dollar declined to 0.8075 Swiss francs from 0.8089 Swiss francs, and it decreased to 1.4011 Canadian dollars from 1.4048 Canadian dollars. The U.S. dollar was down to 9.6497 Swedish kronor from 9.6499 Swedish kronor.